Feasibility Study
Client: Southampton Cultural Development Trust
I was asked by Southampton Cultural Development Trust to produce a feasibility study looking at the possibility of re-siting the public art installation Ringstack by artist Adam Barker-Mill in Southampton. This work involved looking at a range of different sites across Southampton, adaptions that would need to be made to the artwork, proposing an engagement/ events programme that could support the artwork and the potential costs associated with re-siting.
Ringstack was originally developed in 2012 for the Marsh and Parsons Estate Agents Office building on Kensington Park Road, Notting Hill Gate in London. The artwork was commissioned by Notting Hill Gate Improvements Group (NHIG) to capture London’s post Olympic spirit and reflect the importance of Notting Hill as a vibrant and creative cultural hub.
The artwork emerged from a series of experiments in the artist’s studio with cardboard boxes and lanterns. The cut-away lantern known as ‘Reflect Colour Piece’, shown at Harris Lindsay and a number of works that followed it, led to the creation of this public sculpture. A considerable technical achievement, this sculpture forms a ringed tower of light rising vertically to 10 metres above the building that it is sited on, clearly visible against the sky by day and lit from within its base by a powerful lamp at night.
Dubbed the “Notting Hill Skylon” Ringstack is reminiscent of the Modernist period with its ascending discs of light making clear reference to Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis in 1927 and the original Skylon structure designed for the Festival of Britain in 1951 – an aspirational symbol.
Date:
August 1, 2020
Category:
Client